City Council Adopts Comprehensive Plan

The Cedar Hill City Council adopted Cedar Hill Next, the City's comprehensive plan in a 7-0 vote on March 22,2022.

The community engagement process for the plan began in September 2019. What became evident early on in the process was the community’s continued desire to be a “city in a park”. There was a recommitment to the city’s vision statement: “We envision Cedar Hill as a Premier City that retains its distinctive character; where families and businesses flourish in a safe and clean environment.”

To this end, the plan identifies additional areas for open space preservation/conservation and areas that have opportunities for even more open space preservation/conservation. The 20 percent open space goal established in the 2012 Parks, Trails, and Open Space Master Plan has been increased to 25 percent and included in the proposed Comprehensive Plan, from which all other land use policies take their cue. The proposed plan establishes four guiding principles:

1. Multiple Levels of Green – Cedar Hill’s location on the Escarpment, its creeks, and mature trees curate a green network, advance environmental stewardship, spur economic growth, and promote active living.
2. Authentic Connections – Cedar Hill fosters connections amongst its diverse population with unique public places, linkages between neighborhoods and destinations, and state-of-the-art technology.
3. Imaginative Enterprise – Cedar Hill nurtures a business climate conducive to entrepreneurs, experiential retail, fine dining, and innovation that retains and attracts an educated and talented population.
4. One-of-a-Kind Features – Cedar Hill offers recreational and cultural experiences with its natural resources as the nucleus that serves its citizens first while attracting visitors from across the region and country.

City Council appointed a 25-person committee representing a cross-section of the community to be a sounding board on development of the plan. The at-large community was invited to participate during the following: a kick-off event in September 2019; the week-long “Planapalooza” in December 2019; five open houses held in January and February 2022; the Planning and Zoning Commission public hearing on March 15; and the City Council public hearing on March 22.

Following adoption of the plan, implementation will commence. First on the list will be the fulfillment of a state mandate to update capital impact fees every five years, which requires a review of the Water and Wastewater Master Plans.